Helping peers engage with presentations

Student Presentation Tips

At the end of the year, presentations are a wonderful way for Multilingual Learners to express what they have learned about a certain topic because sharing involves comprehensible input through visuals and gestures. They can work on pronunciation and clarity and share ideas that might be difficult to write out. Presentations are such a common practice in almost every occupation—often done in collaboration with their colleagues. In addition, research confirms that MLs can acquire English more readily through oral language practice within meaningful academic activities. The process of organizing and delivering content through a presentation can encourage deep thinking.

At the same time, we all know that students will space out during their peer’s presentations if they are not asked to engage in specific ways. I always have a task for their peers to do while they are presenting. It’s so much more motivating to present to a room that is actually listening to you and showing respect. It’s also a great way to teach everyone listening skills. This can be accomplished by asking the students to fill out a graphic organizer, write down new ideas they’ve learned, ask questions, or complete a short evaluation.

Look at this video example from a secondary science classroom starting about the 5 minute mark to the 8 minute mark (but the entire clip is super helpful):

By the way, my friend, Dr. Megan Peercy and colleagues, developed a bunch of videos like these based on core practices for teaching Multilingual Students and they are FREE on youtube. Check them out!

Here’s another sample graphic organizer students can complete while other groups are presenting:

How do presentations work for you?

What have you found is useful.